The Long Road Home
by FuzyDr4G0NZ
Summary: (A story for those who prefered the original Trafalgars 'gate.) The UNSC's most recent Battle ship ends up somewhere else during the ships trial runs.


**A/N; this is for those who prefered the first version of the stroy 'Trafalgars 'gate'**

**Also, if any one wants to read a version of Contact Harvest for a ME/Halo cross**

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**UNSC Military priority Slip-space lane near Sol system, December 14****th**** 2562**

The UNSC Constellation was the most recent and most powerful Battle ships out of the dry docks since the Infinity itself, at six point six kilometres long it was the largest ship to be commissioned by the UNSC.

After completing most of her trial runs through UNSC space she and her battle group; some 8 Marathon II class Cruisers and 2 Olympus class Cruisers were speeding towards the Sol system, the final test of the Constitution; how long it took her to get from Harvest to Earth, a trip that would have taken a pre-war ship nearly two months to complete was about to be done in less than a week, a time that was completely unheard of just half a century ago.

This was why Rear Admiral Benson, the man in charge of the ship until she was ready for front line duty stood at the centre of the cavernous bridge, a holographic command table near the rear and the Command chair nearer the front, surrounded by at least half a dozen stations such the NAV, Weapons, Flight Ops, Comms, Spartan Ops Command and several other stations.

The bridge itself was split in two; the back end of the bridge where the Holographic table and dozens of other work stations were located was slightly more elevated then the front end of the bridge, separated by a brass railing and a single step.

John stood leaning against the brass railing, his aged face showed the ever so slightest bit excitement, Derek had served as a Junior Officer on a few pre-war ships, the old rubber decks and spinning sections were a dead giveaway at the now obsolete vessels. He had served as part of Cole's Battle group to retake Harvest, he was even an XO of a Carrier during the Fall of Reach, he have been lucky enough to escape with his life he didn't escape unharmed, in fact his entire left side was covered with second and third degree burns leaving him scarred for life.

No matter how scarred he was he always stood tall and proud in his grey Officer uniform, never feeling out of place or disfigured, even if his children's classmates stared and whispered to one another behind his back.

But right now he was looking forward to getting home and finally resigning, perhaps maybe even visiting his mother who was according to her last letter bedridden in hospice in the north of England.

"Sir we're exiting Slip-space in one minute," Lieutenant Cadman, a promising officer that could make it far in the Navy,

"Good, bring us out near Charon and send a message to HIGHCOM to stop the clock and that all is running smoothly," John ordered, moving to sit in the Command chair,

It was just a minute later when the battle group left the black eleventh dimension behind and filtered back into normal space, however unknown to the crew they had just set off at least a half dozen alarms in an underground installation in the heart of Colorado.

XX

Inside the command centre of the underground base a blond Air Force Major was working furiously to find out what had just set off the alarms, at least ten ships of unknown origin had literally just popped into the system near Pluto,

"Major Carter what is going on?" demanded an older gentleman with two silver stars adorning his shoulder,

"Eleven ships have just appeared near Pluto, they seem to be holding position." she reported, it was just then that a notification came up, informing them that they were being hailed by the unknown fleet,

"Open it up," the General ordered, Carter just nodded and typed in a few commands before a voice filled the speakers,

"_This the Constellation Actual to FLEETCOM Actual, you can stop the clock and get the Champaign ready, the Constellation is ready for the official commissioning_." Every member in the command centre looked at one another, unsure on how to continue.

General Hammond was the first one to recover,

"Major, open a channel to the flag ship," Hammond ordered, snapping the Air Force crew back into action, quickly opening the channel Carter nodded to let the General know that the line was open,

"This is General George Hammond of the SGC, who exactly am I talking to?" George was unsure of how they would react but he of how they would react but he certainly didn't expect the unknowns to suddenly pick up speed and head straight for Earth,

"_General, this is Rear Admiral John Benson of the UNSC Constellation, who the hell are you and why the hell are you on a FLEETCOM priority channel?" _An aged and harsh voice demanded,

The members in the control room of the SGC were a little bit shocked, it seemed like the unknown ships thought that this was their home system… which was impossible.

Another alarm rang out dozens of fighter squadrons had been launched and were racing ahead of the main fleet which was now just passing Saturn; it appeared that they had very advanced sub light engines and if George didn't calm these people down quickly they would be over Earth and there would be nothing the SGC could do about it.

"Sir, I'm picking up a hyperspace window opening in front of the fleet… it's the Asgard!" Carter informed him, _'thank god, the Asgard showed up for once'_ it was pure luck that the Asgard decided to show up during this particular threat,

XX

The battle group was closing in on Earth in a standard battle formation, every available fighter had been launched and the battle group was at condition red once no UNSC installations were detected in orbit of Jupiter or Mars, the bridge crew was tense and John couldn't blame them, his gut instinct told him retirement would have to wait.

They were nearing the Asteroid belt when the sensor operator called out,

"Sir, massive radiation spike, three thousand clicks ahead of us,"

"A nuke?" John asked, Lt Meadows shook his head,

"No sir, too much neutron radiation," he reported, just as john was about to ask what it was three ships appeared on sensors, John pulled up an image of the ships on one of the many screens that were scattered around the bridge, to John they looked like a massive version of Thor's Hammer he had seen in an old mythology book, with two towers that curved inwards slightly, all three were a brilliant silver and each had four 'turrets' sticking out towards his battle group.

"Sir we're being hailed by the unknown vessels, orders?" the Comm officer requested, John hesitated a second, he didn't know how well the Constellation would hold out in combat as she was still on her trial runs and hadn't seen actual combat and he didn't know how well the unknowns would do in combat as they certainly weren't Covenant, Forerunner or even URF.

"Open the channel Lieutenant; maybe we can get some answers." John ordered.


End file.
